Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Christina Kahrl, of ESPN's SweetSpot blog has some interesting things to say about the Dodgers hot start, June woes, and subsequent reinvention. While I still don't know that Ned's trade deadline acquisitions are a miracle cure for what ailed the roster, it's a step in the right direction. Knowing Kahrl's "Baseball Prospectus" roots, where Colletti-baiting was (and is sometimes still) an art, I read this as the equivalent of high praise.

If you want to speculate about anything with this club, though, don’t
think about the warm fuzzies of the Dodgers’ new Age of Magic (Johnson),
or what might have been if Kemp had stayed healthy. That way lies
madness -- with Kemp around, perhaps the Dodgers’ needs might not have
seemed so dire, and maybe then Colletti doesn’t bring in HanRam and the
Flyin’ Hawaiian and rent Joe Blanton. Follow that thread of
possibilities, and you’re probably left with a nice little team, an
85-win team that gets remembered fondly as a symbol of the Dodgers’
return to respectability, if mildly disappointing for its late fade.

As someone who has been long been critical of Colletti (and there has been much to be critical of), I have to acknowledge that the team is likely stronger right now than it was to start the season, despite the tremendous early success.